The End Of Moonfish Productions

Today Moonfish Productions got straight to work on adapting our version of 'Hansel and Gretel', in order to improve on the things that we were given feedback for. I suggested that we could add physical theatre and music to our piece or that we could each come out of the story, at one point and tell a certain part of it from each of our points of view.

Then we were given an ultimatum- we could have either have stayed together and risked not getting graded for this unit, or we could have each joined other groups and worked on the production side of things. After a group meeting, we made the hard decision to join other groups. Not wanting anyone to not have a group to join- we all allocated each other to certain groups, so that no group would have too many production people.

I asked to help the Children's Theatre Company, 'Deep Blue Tales'. They asked me to repaint rocks that they already had for them and to create new rocks. Therefore, I painted the rocks and then discovered that another member of Moonfish Productions was working on the production side of Deep Blue Tales' show. I asked if they needed any help and helped them with cutting materials. I decided to listen to the instructions of someone more artistic than myself, which ended up being the opposite of what needed to be done. Then I listened to their instructions again, and completely messed up. Next time, I will be more independent when it comes to art and trust my own instincts, as if I had, I would have ended up doing the right thing.

Immediately afterwards, I worked on making more rocks. I then moved onto helping to paint the 'Fish + Chips' sign. Later, I made some more rocks for the group. I worked hard on the jobs that needed doing for this group and worked all day without stopping, as I was determined to help them out. However, at the end of the day, I was told their was not enough room on the tour buses for me and that my help wasn't needed on the tour. Therefore I will not be going on tour, but I will try to help them out during The Evening Performance.

Here are the rocks I began making:

Here is an image of the 'Fish + Chips' sign:

Hansel And Gretal

Today Moonfish Productions thought about adding a twist to 'Hansel and Gretel'. We thought that instead of making The Parents horrible and The Children nice, we could make The Parents sweet, embarrassing and enthusiastic about going on a camping trip to the forest. We thought that Hansel and Gretel could be constantly embarrassed by and annoyed at their parents, until they go on a camping trip and find a spell book. They could then, cast spells on their mother and father. One of these spells, would turn them into a Witch and a Warlock. The Witch and Warlock would teach their children a lesson by summoning a gingerbread house and luring their greedy children into it, where they would play frightful tricks on them. In trying to escape, Hansel and Gretal would accidentally turn their parents into dolls (the audience would hear the mum and dad talking from backstage, giving the illusion that they have become dolls).

We had to perform what we had to our peers. I felt that, once again, I was flat at times. I was also very clumsy today and kept bumping into things. I need to make sure that I get a good night sleep before performing, as it effects my performance negatively. We were given feedback that the beginning didn't capture the audiences attention and that the story was too far away from the original story of Hansel and Gretal. We also had too many fairytale references, which could give false hopes of appearances from them. It was suggested that the kids could be really bratty and that their parents could be at the end of their tether. To teach the kids a lesson, the parents would play tricks on them and cast spells on them while on a camping trip.

While observing other groups, I realised that they all had something original and exciting about their play that made them stand out e.g. physical theatre, well-known fairytale characters mixed into one story, live music etc. Our group have nothing to help us to stand out.


Also we saw a show at The Hat Factory. It was called Our Big Land:
http://www.lutonculture.com/hat-factory/whats-on/2014/03/13/our-big-land/881/?from=%252Fhat-factory%252Fwhats-on%252F%2523search
It was interesting to observe the culture of Romany Travellers. I knew hardly anything about their culture before I saw the show and it opened my eyes to the use of contrasting different cultures when devising performances. I enjoyed their use of physical theatre, live singing and music to move the story along. I will suggest the idea of this to 'Moonfish Productions' for the opening of our piece, as well as other scenes.

Moonfish Productions- The Split

Today we showed our children's theatre performances to The Second Years and The Level 2s. During our performance of 'The Something', a lot of things went wrong. Although the first scene went okay, the other scenes were not performed the way that we had rehearsed them yesterday. This was partly due to the fact that we had made some last minute changes and it was our first run with props (which caused multiple problems). We introduced new props (makeup) to Scene 4 just before the performance, as we hadn't yet got our hands on sweat band (which we would have put on in slow motion instead of the make-up). As a result, the scene ended up looking too inappropriate for children's theatre, especially with the song that was chosen for background. I tried not to look sexual by trying to pull a funny face, which ended up making it look even worse.

I felt that although my character had a lot of energy, she was too shouty and screamy, and her accent was likely to he too hard to understand at times. We were given feedback from our tutor and peers, where we were told that the plot was very confusing. They also felt that we were telling 3 different stories.

Most of our group were upset that the idea didn't work. We spent some time considering new ideas/ trying to improve the idea we had. A few hours later we found out that two members of group decided to leave because they felt that our idea wasn't working. It was quite shocking for all of the remaining members, as we never had arguments and got along well, but the 4 of us pulled together in order to figure out what we would do next.

We attempted to develop the idea that we already had, without the double-acts, but we couldn't see it working. We thought about turning to the idea of a well-known fairytale with a twist. After looking at various options, (e.g. I suggested snow white or sleeping beauty), we all decided on Hansel and Gretal. I feel that my naturalistic-acting is under-practised, as I sometimes feel as though it sounds like I'm reading straight from the script. This could be due to the fact that I stress myself out about the delivery of each line and believe that it will sound flat- and then it does. I am a lot more comfortable with naturalistic acting during one-off improvisation tasks. Once I have performed the lines again and again, I struggle to stay as natural as I did the first time. I will try to solve this issues by reading more monologues- specialising in the naturalistic-style of acting. I will also practise more naturalistic improvisation.

Although i do contribute fully in every group meeting, I still need to work on finding the confidence to contribute in larger groups and when discussing ideas with our tutor. Whenever I'm in my 'Children's Theatre' group, I never hold back. I always have multiple ideas in my head and I make sure that I pitch them all to my group. A lot of my ideas have been used in the past (e.g. The Narrator in 'The Hairy Toe' (version one) coming in and out of the story and various other big and small ideas). If I think an idea works or isn't working, I mention it to the group and explain why. I have even wrote down some of our notes for my group. I feel that we all contribute equally in every group meeting. When it comes to putting my opinions forward within a large group or when discussing our groups ideas with our tutor, I become to worried about not being able to voice exactly what it is that I wish to say . I often find that when speaking (not in character), I often get my words jumbled and even I  become confused as to what it is that I've just said Although I struggle with this problem in group meetings, I somehow feel that it doesn't matter so much if  I speak incoherently. In other situations I hold back from what I want to say. This is a confidence issue and I can work to overcome this by adopting the same approach to such situations, as I have in Moonfish Productions' meetings. I also need to think of 'speaking' in the same way that I think of writing words on a page (as I seem to be better at explaining myself in this way). I must understand the importance of voicing my opinions in class, as it is good practise for the future. Holding back, will only make me regret not saying things.

'The Something'- Running Order

Today Moonfish Productions focused on completing our play. We worked through all of the scenes and then put them all together. We ran the whole show again and again and found that it lasts about 15 minutes. Here is an image of our current running order.

We felt that scene 4 was too short and so we added additional dialogue. It now involves a lot of melodramatic crying, which I must remember to bring a lot of energy to every time.

Here are images of the script for scene 4 (version 2):

We asked for some peer feedback, in which we were told that there was too much screaming and shouting in our piece. Our first few rehearsals went well. I have been improvising with my character at home, anytime that I have free. When we recorded our performance today, I felt that I was flat at times and so, I must maintain my characters high energy level and enthusiasm throughout every run of the show. On the other hand, in watching the video, I felt that my physicality has improved, due to the fact that i remembered to maintain the tonic body. I must also be careful that my facial expressions aren't unintentionally scary, which I will do by virtually always smiling and keeping my eyebrows raised.

 

 

Cindy- A Nice Character

Since the beginning of 'The Children's Theatre Project' I have played a Narrator/ Pirate, an Evil Henchman, a Cockney Hoodie/ The Voice Of Mr Dibbles and an Australian Hoodie. All of these characters have been evil or scary and so my target for this project is to play a nicer/ happier character, which I should portray by adjusting my facial expressions and voice. I was also told to make myself a larger role within my group's production. I have attempted to do this by giving my character more lines and making her 'a bigger character' (as we were told that children like 'big' characters).

I found a character that fits in with Moonfish Productions' show nicely. I have kept the Australian accent, as I was told that children like to hear different types of voices. It also allows me to play around with this character's voice in a way that creates humour. Cindy's voice is more high-pitched than Jordan's (Australian Hoodie) and she smiles a lot. She's quite cheeky, energetic, loud and excitable, but not very clever and she's very girly. She nearly always has her hands up to her shoulders, with the tip of her thumbs touching the tip of her middle fingers, with her pinkie sticking out (to show how girly she is).

Here is a rough copy of my lines and cue lines for the play as of yet: 

Finding A Plot

Today we all decided that yesterdays plots weren't strong enough story lines and so we scrapped both ideas. We struggled with finding a plot throughout the day. We came up with the idea of our story being based on Circus Performers, who find something that has fallen from the sky. Later we thought about the idea of Superheroes, who's powers are taken away from them when something falls from the sky. These Superheroes would have to battle The Evil Lady Petronella, who has stolen their powers for herself, in order to retrieve their powers. Then we thought about a group of Circus Performers, who find 5 jelly beans that have fallen from the sky. These jelly beans would give them superpowers, which they would use to defy their evil Ringmaster.

After having a talk with Ella, we found that the idea of the characters we came up with yesterday, going on a rat race to find 'the something' that has fallen from the sky, could be something we could work with. This time the Duke and Duchess would be scientists, who would want 'the something' because it is a cure for hairy toes. The Bimbo and The Hoodie, would be sisters, who want 'the something', as it might help them to find there long lost sister, 'Susie-Anne'. A new character, The Evil Lady Teapots, would want 'the something' for selfish reasons. The Presenter would follow our characters around, interviewing them and reporting on their every move, which would become quite an annoyance for them.

'The Something'

We changed the title of our production from 'The Hairy Toe' to 'The Something' because we found that the original title was no longer relevant to our new plot. In our new plot, our characters were; a Duke and Duchess, a Presenter, a Ghost, a Blonde Bimbo and a Hoodie. 

Here are our notes:

Here is our plot 'The Something':

The story begins with the characters breaking into the haunted mansion. The Presenter interrupts them and the story rewinds to The Duke and Duchess in their house 4 hours earlier. The Duke and Duchess discuss dinner, turn on the radio and hear about 'the something' that has fallen from the sky. They decide to go on a quest to find it, where meet a Bimbo at a hair salon and a Creepy Hoodie in the forest. All of the characters head to the haunted mansion (where 'the something' supposedly is) and we return to the scene in which the characters break into the mansion. In the mansion they split up to find 'the something'. They each encounter a ghost and then they all bump into each other again. They are startled by a noise, all run away and split off again. This time The Ghost catches them all one by one and in a shocking twist, this was The Presenter's plan all along.

My character was the Creepy Hoodie. We decided that my character tries to be tough and scary, but really they are a big softy. For this reason, I introduced Mr. Dibbles into the story- an Australian teddy bear, who had a mind of his own and in ventriloquist-style, I would also be the voice of Mr. Dibbles.

We each wrote part of the script as homework. I was asked to write the scene in which the Duke, Duchess and Bimbo meet my character in the forest:

I was also asked to write about what happens to my character the first time that they split off in the haunted mansion:

We had to show our opening scene to the class. We were given feedback that our characters were good, but that our storyline was lacking as we were making it too complicated and confusing. We also needed at least one of our characters to be someone that the children could relate to. I felt that I needed to make my physicality stronger, which I could have done by better applying 'the tonic body'. I could improve on my reactions to the other characters. I also need to develop better characterisation, which I can improve on by improvising with my character.

Later we tried to adapt our story in an attempt to improve on the points raised in our feedback session. Our new plot involved the same characters, but the story line changed dramatically:
It begins with a 15-year-old Bimbo being adopted by a Duke and Duchess. They treat her horribly (live a slave), and when they hear the news about 'The Something' falling from the sky, they go off to find it without her, in a hope that it will give them enormous wealth. The Bimbo goes off crying and meets her new friend (Yasmin), who always carries a teddy bear around with her, named 'Mr Dibbles'. Yasmin and Stacey (The Bimbo) become great friends and set off to find 'the something' themselves. Yasmin acts like Stacey's conscience and reminds her to be a good person. By the end of the story, The Duke and Duchess learn to love Stacey. Stacey thanks Yasmin for all her help, but soon finds that she is the only person who can see Yasmin. Yasmin tells Stacey that Stacey wont need her anymore and disappears, leaving Stacey with Mr. Dibbles. When The Duke and Duchess leave Stacey alone, she hugs Mr. Dibbles and says, "Bye Yasmin."